Days 68, 69,& 70 - To Mackinac Island

Day 68
Saturday, August 26, 2017
Duluth, Minnesota to Champion, Michigan

It was a good thing that our day to tour Duluth was yesterday and not today. It rained all last night and most of the day today as we drove across Wisconsin into Michigan.

By the time we reached the campground the rain had stopped. Since it was a Saturday, Van Riper State Park was almost full.

Sandy and Pilgrim enjoyed walks on the campground loops. That girl Sandy certainly has a nose! After a walk, I had been in the habit of taking Sandy’s leash off once we reached the steps of the RV, so she could climb up the steps unencumbered. We followed this routine today, except this time, as I was removing her leash, she turned her nose up in the air and started sniffing, then made an about turn and a beeline for a bone that was some 50 yards away! Then we had quite the game of “keep away”. There was no way she was going to give up that bone voluntarily. So, I thought to myself, I have to offer her something better. I quickly ran into the RV and grabbed a handful of hot dogs from the freezer. I threw two huge chucks onto the ground. That did the trick. She dropped the bone and went for the hot dogs instead…..got her!

Day 69
Sunday, August 27, 2017
Champion to Mackinaw City, Michigan

Our reprieve from the rain was short-lived. It rained most of last night and kept it up until mid day.

Much of our drive was on the Lake Michigan Circle Tour with nice views of the lake.

We drove across Mackinac Bridge to get to Mackinaw City. Constructed in 1957, the five mile suspension bridge links Michigan’s Upper and Lower peninsulas. Leading up to the bridge, we kept seeing signs that said the bridge would be closed on Labor Day. Every day since 1958, one lane of the bridge has been closed on Labor Day for the annual Bridge Walk in which people may walk the length of the bridge. (There is a shuttle bus to take walkers back across.) It’s a pretty big deal. Led by the governor, usually, 55,000 to 65,000 participate. Anyway, this year, because of security concerns, the entire bridge will be closed from 6:30 am to noon. Despite all the warnings, they are expecting quite a traffic back-up and are putting up water and snack stations as well as porta potties.

Day 70
Monday, August 28, 2017
Mackinac Island Michigan

Midmorning, we took a 20 minute ferry ride to Mackinac Island. The island, 3.8 square miles (about 8 miles around), lies in Lake Huron between Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas. It has 500 permanent residents and is unique in that cars have been banned since 1898. The only motorized vehicles that are allowed are emergency vehicles. If you don’t want to walk, then bicycling is the chief option. Jay said that he hadn’t seen so many bicycles in his life.

There is one other mode of transportation prominent on the island and that is horse power. We saw big draft horses, mostly Belgians, Percherons, and a few Clydesdales, pulling cargo wagons loaded with luggage (for delivery to various hotels), boxes of all sizes, and garbage pails. They also pull the carriages for tours of the island. Teams of three horses are used to pull the large carriages that hold 32 passengers. Teams of two horses pull the mid-size carriages that can carry 16 passengers. Hotels use smaller carriages to shuttle guests and there are even taxi carriages. The 500 or so horses that work on the island during the summer and early fall, are transported by ferry to the mainland for the winter.

Jay and I took one of the two-hour carriage rides. We started the tour in a 16 passenger carriage that passed through some of the streets in town. We passed by shops, restaurants, B & Bs and historical sites. (The entire island is a National Historic Landmark.) All were well maintained and many had colorful gardens or planters. The town was neat and tidy complete with uniformed street cleaners to pick up

after the horses. We transferred to the larger 32 passenger carriage for the second half of the tour which took us through some of the natural areas (80 percent of the island is a state park.), including a stop for a photo of Arch Rock.

We did a little window shopping after the tour. We were a little disappointed in the shops. Most stores were of the tee shirt and inexpensive souvenir type. Seems the storefronts were more upscale than the wares. Besides restaurants and bicycle rental stores, the other most common stores are fudge shops. There are SIXTEEN fudge shops in town! We didn’t buy any tee shirts, but the more we walked past the fudge shops, watched the fudge being made and smelled the aroma of chocolate, the hungrier for fudge we got. We finally broke down and bought a little peanut butter and chocolate-pecan.